November 9-13

Hello parents!

It's Monday, which means another update on what your child is doing in English class this week! This week, we are having a writing workshop concerning the essays that they have written. The will be looking at their own writing, as well as other students' writing, to try to improve it and make it as good as possible. Here is a brief run-down of this week:

Monday- get new vocabulary words
Tuesday- writing workshop (introductions)
Wednesday- writing workshop (body paragraphs)
Thursday- writing workshop (conclusions)
Friday- reading logs are due and vocabulary quiz

Today (Monday) in class, I will be introducing new vocabulary words for this week, which will be on Friday's quiz. Also, I am explaining to the classes that the vocabulary quizzes are going to be a little bit different starting this week than they have been in the past. From now on, each week's vocabulary will build on other weeks' on the quizzes. Previously, they were only quizzed on that week's vocabulary, but after seeing the scores on the vocabulary quizzes, I have decided to change things. For example, last week's quiz included only last week's words. This week's quiz will include this week's words, as well as last week's words. Next week's will have three weeks of words, and so on.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are all the same. We will be doing our writing workshop over the essays that they have already written. What I am going to do is divide them into groups of four and have them look at each others' writing to try to make it better. They have specific questions to answer about the writing, and they are supposed to give suggestions to try to make that essay better. Tuesday, we will focus on introduction paragraphs. Wednesday, we will focus on body paragraphs, and Thursday, we will focus on conclusion paragraphs. The students will be working together to try to make their essays and the essays of their peers better, and then they will turn in their revised essays on Monday. They will get a 20 point participation grade for each of these days. If they come to class with their essays and participate in the writing workshop, then they will get the points.

Friday is basically a day of turning in lots of things. Last Thursday in class, I went over all of the missing assignments for each student, and then I gave them class time on Friday to work on what they are missing and get help with any work that they might not completely understand. I told them that they had until this Friday to get everything turned in, so if they still have any work missing (and they should know if they do), then this work will all be due this Friday. After this Friday, I will no longer accept the work, and they will get a zero for that assignment. Also, reading logs are due again this Friday and they have a vocab quiz as well.

Next week in class, we will be wrapping up the essay unit with a test and beginning reading The Odyssey.

The only homework thatyour child should have this week is to finish up his/her reading log and study for Friday's vocabulary quiz. He/she will probably have homework this weekend, which will be rewriting their essays using the suggestions that their peers have given them. They will also need to prepare for next week's essay test.

Once again, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions concerning your child's grade or what we are doing in English class. My email address is kwalls@byngschools.com, or you can call the school to set up an appointment at 580-310-6744. I hope you have a great week!